India Ink

A Poem by JR

Blackbird stitched against white canvas

of the morning sky

like those I would sketch with India ink

and the flat of a calligraphy pen

in two broad scratches

to create the swoop

and stretch;

If I was a painter I would start the same

slather the canvas in black

I believe everything begins in the dark

like the shade I borrowed from the raven

like the shade I stole from midnight and

her rich swept hues, the only true artist

I’ve ever known

colors are added over the top in layers

first the yellows and reds of the past,

coated over by the purple

of tomorrow’s promise

I’d rather be the blackbird but

if I can’t, I’d rather sketch one

of India ink

black as midnight

against the colored canvas

of the sky.

© 2020 JR

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Featured Review

Eilis

I like the way you use repetition in your poems. At least the ones I've read so far. It lends a sense of the process of creative thought, and also just the human process of coming to grips with experience. Sometimes we repeat things to ourselves as mantra and sometimes we repeat them in an effort to make ourselves believe something we know, deep down, we don't believe to be true.

Here, I feel like the speaker is reaching for a kind of understanding and also a sense of an ideal. The bird as the only true artist, and then the exploration of how one might, himself, become the artist. It speaks to me of authenticity. The ways we seek out the perfect or pure expression but end up grappling in the dark.

The idea that 'everything begins in the dark' is great because it can go a few different ways. It alludes to the act of creation itself where there is first nothing and then something drawn out of the darkness. But also, it brings to mind the idea that it is in our darker moments that we can find inspiration.

I like the possibilities and layers of the poem. And as a poet of birds myself, I just appreciated the visual sense of things. Great poetry, here.